TL Note: Merry Christmas! Here are 5 chapters!
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Inside the Knights of Favonius headquarters, in Jean's office, Su Bai sat in a chair drinking Jean's coffee. He was not particularly used to the taste, but Jean clearly liked it. As long as it caused Jean even a little inconvenience, he felt perfectly satisfied.
"Lord Su Bai, I am truly sorry. The Knights of Favonius failed to investigate the matter thoroughly before placing you in solitary confinement. This was our negligence, and we will compensate you accordingly."
Jean's tone carried guilt. After all, they had wronged someone and locked him in the confinement room for several days—no matter how one looked at it, this was the Knights' mistake.
"Actually, this isn't entirely your fault. I know you were also misled by someone else. I'm not angry because of that," Su Bai said calmly."I just want to ask, Acting Grand Master Jean—was I really the only one in the confinement room?"
"Someone else?"Jean froze for a moment, then her expression changed. Oh no. Klee had been kept in solitary confinement this entire time. With the crisis involving Stormterror, she had been so busy that she had actually forgotten to let Klee out.
"It seems you've remembered," Su Bai said. "I don't know what role Klee holds in your heart, but I do know that, in Klee's eyes, you've always been like a mother to her. Perhaps you should spend more time with her."
"You might not even know that Klee's best friend is a stuffed toy called Dodoco. If people paid just a bit more attention to her, her emotional support wouldn't have ended up being a plush toy."
"I won't say more than this. Acting Grand Master Jean, you should think about it yourself. You didn't visit Klee even once during all these days she was in solitary. That really was too much."
After saying this, Su Bai turned and left Jean's office. To be honest, he was still somewhat angry. He worried that if he stayed any longer, he might actually end up fighting Jean.
"Klee wants to continue researching her fireworks in the confinement room. I really wonder if the ceiling there is sturdy enough."
Thinking about how the ceiling had already been remodeled into something resembling Stormterror's Lair, Su Bai smiled bitterly. No matter how much he tried to persuade her that morning, Klee insisted on staying. When she heard that he was leaving the confinement room, she had even pushed him out, telling him to hurry up and go. He truly couldn't understand how children's minds worked.
Inside the confinement room, Klee stood on a chair, secretly watching through the window. When she saw Su Bai leave the Knights' headquarters, she immediately cheered.
"Yay! Now I can finally make a special Jumpty Dumpty for Brother Su Bai! Next time Brother Su Bai comes, Klee can give it to him!"
Without wasting time, Klee took out the materials for making Jumpty Dumpty and sat on the floor to assemble them.
Meanwhile, Jean—after thinking over what Su Bai had said—realized that it truly wasn't right that she hadn't visited Klee for so long. Filled with guilt, she pushed open the door to the confinement room. The apology she had prepared vanished instantly when she saw the Jumpty Dumpty beside Klee, replaced by a furious shout.
"Klee! You're playing with bombs again!"
"Acting Grand Master Jean?! Why are you here?!"
Klee had not expected Jean to appear so suddenly. She froze on the spot. Seeing Jean—like the great demon king in her nightmares, hair practically floating in the air—the light in Klee's eyes instantly dimmed. She knew she was done for this time.
Unaware that he had inadvertently doomed Klee, Su Bai encountered a small problem of his own on the streets. He noticed a woman staring at him with an intense gaze—not at him exactly, but at his tail.
With nothing better to do, Su Bai decided to tease her a little. He deliberately swayed his tail, showing off its fluffy fullness. Margaret, who had been following him and observing his tail, stared wide-eyed.
Margaret had absolutely no resistance to fluffy things. At that moment, she felt that cats were nothing special at all—she didn't know them, she didn't care. All she wanted was to touch that fluffy tail.
Seeing that he had teased her enough and that she still hadn't approached him, Su Bai pretended to leave. The moment Margaret saw him about to go, she immediately stepped forward to block his path.
"Hello, sir. I'm Margaret, the owner of the Cat's Tail Tavern. Would I have the honor of inviting you for a drink?"
Fearing that such an adorable tail would slip away, Margaret chose to act first. If she could persuade this handsome fox gentleman to work at her tavern, she could steal away some of the female customers who flocked to Angel's Share for Diluc.
More importantly, if she could win over this fox gentleman, she could touch that tail every day. Just thinking about it made her excited.
"Well, that's very kind of you," Su Bai replied. "Why don't you lead the way? I've never been to the Cat's Tail Tavern."
With the mindset of "not taking advantage would make me no better than Arataki Itto's cow," Su Bai followed Margaret into a small alley. At first, he even wondered whether she was planning to drag him into a back alley to forcibly pet his tail.
Before he could take another step, however, a drunk staggered out of a door nearby. The strange smell coming off that person almost made Su Bai throw up. He genuinely couldn't understand how a human body could smell simultaneously of frogs, lizards, and alcohol.
"Boss Margaret, your Cat's Tail Tavern doesn't serve things like frog sashimi or lizard sashimi as bar snacks, does it?" Su Bai asked. "If that's the case, I'm not going in."
"Don't worry, sir. We're not that bloody. Once you get inside, you'll understand. The drinks at the Cat's Tail Tavern are quite special."
Since Margaret put it that way, Su Bai decided to trust her—for the moment—and pushed open the tavern door. The first thing he saw was a frog leg soaking in someone's drink.
The overwhelming stench of various creatures mixed together hit him head-on. His already pale face turned even whiter. Unable to hold it in, he vomited on the spot.
"Ugh—I really—ugh—can't take it. Next time, next time."
Ignoring Margaret's attempts to stop him, Su Bai stumbled to a corner and continued retching. The smell was so nauseating that tears nearly came out of his eyes. If he ever trusted Margaret again, he wouldn't be a fox—he'd be a dog.
"Damn it, what on earth is producing such a smell? How can something this evil exist in the world?"
"Exactly, how can something this evil exist? Here—drink some water."
A small hand held out a cup of water. Su Bai took it and gulped it down in one go. At that moment, he felt that plain boiled water had never tasted so good.
"Thanks, little… little kitty."
"Hey! I'm not a little kitty. My name is Diona."
Diona stood with her hands on her hips, the pink cat ears on her head twitching. Normally, she would have been furious at being called that, but seeing that Su Bai also seemed to hate alcohol, she magnanimously forgave him. And so, a strange misunderstanding formed between Su Bai and Diona.
"Hey, big fox, let's go find the materials to defeat this evil thing together later. If we team up, we'll definitely succeed."
"Agreed. I never want to smell that horrible stench again. It's worse than seafood that's been pickled for ten years."
"Oh, and one more thing—I'm called Su Bai, not Big Fox."
"Got it, Big Fox. Understood, Big Fox."